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Erving Goffman Erving Goffman Item Type Book chapter Authors Henry, Philip M. Citation Henry, P.M. (2016) 'Erving Goffman' in Sener, O., Sleap, F., & Weller, P. Dialogue Theories II. London: Dialogue Society, pp. 157-172 Publisher Institute of Dialogue Studies Download date 26/09/2021 15:27:08 Item License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10545/621419 Erving Goffman By Dr Phil Henry, University of Derby Biographical Introduction Erving Goffman (1922–1982) has been described as ‘the most influential sociologist of the twentieth century’ 1 and is, according to the March 2009 edition of The Times Higher Education Guide,2 one of the six most cited authors in the Humanities, after Anthony Giddens (1938-) and before Jürgen Habermas (1929-). Born in Mannville, Alberta, Canada in 1922, the son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrant parents, Goffman may not, on first impression, immediately conjure up thoughts of dialogue. However, in introducing his work in this chapter, I hope to show how, in his exposition of face-to-face interaction (in what he called the ‘Interaction Order’ 3), and in the field that has broadly become known as the ‘Sociology of the Everyday’ it is possible to find significant and creative resources for the theory and practice of dialogue. As a child between the two World Wars, Goffman’s life moved from rural to urban areas in Manitoba Canada following rail expansion, and in so doing exposed him to discrimination, both in relation to himself and also in relation to his Jewish family and community4. As a young person both he and his sister5 (who later became a well-known actress) acted out school performances, and during that formative experience sowed the seeds for his ideas about ‘dramaturgy’, which would later find academic and popular acclaim and, it is argued in this chapter, can itself also contribute to the theory and practice of dialogue. Cavan points out the importance of Goffman’s work, ‘not in inventing the language of dramaturgy but in developing the theatrical metaphor as a method of describing social life, a metaphor that made visible what had before been obscure.’6 The complicated relationship Goffman had with his Jewish identity involved a reluctance to embrace it. Moreover, in marrying an Episcopalian Christian, he moved from an ‘outsider’ to Canadian culture to an ‘insider’. He distanced himself from family and former friends as he embarked upon an academic pathway. By doing so he created a seemingly happy isolation from the culturally normative world of his upbringing in the ‘Yiddish-speaking enclave’7 of Winnipeg and among the small town bigots of Dauphin. Cavan suggests, however, that it was in his early years that his interest in ‘stigma’ was also developed, ‘showing how stigmatizing circumstances can discredit claims to identity, and suggesting how impression management helps mitigate the discrepancy between a person’s real life circumstances and prevailing cultural ideas.’8 Goffman’s rise to sociological fame took him from relative obscurity as he moved to Chicago to become a postgraduate. Having completed his PhD on ‘Communication Conduct’ in the 1 Gary Alan Fine and Philip Manning, ‘Erving Goffman’ in The Blackwell Companion to Major Contemporary Social Theorists ed. George Ritzer (London: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2003). 2 The Times Higher Education Guide, 26th March 2009, accessed 20th June 2014 http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/405956.article. 3 Erving Goffman, Communication Conduct in an Island Community, unpublished PhD thesis, Dept. of Sociology, University of Chicago, 1953; Erving Goffman, ‘The Interaction Order,’ American Sociological Review 48 (1983): 1-17. 4 Yves Winkin, ‘What is Life? The uneasy making of an intellectual biography,’ in Goffman and Sociological Organization: Studies in a sociological legacy ed. Greg Smith (London: Routledge, 1999), 19. 5 Frances Bay, nee Goffman became a Hollywood and Television actress. 6 Sherri Cavan, ‘When Erving Goffman was a Boy: The Formative Years of a Sociological Giant,’ Symbolic Interaction 37, no. 1 (2014): 59. 7 Cavan, ‘When Erving Goffman was a Boy,’ 58. 8 Cavan, ‘When Erving Goffman was a Boy,’ 41. 160 Shetland Isles, he moved to The Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda (as a visiting scientist), where he stayed for three years. From there he moved to University of California, Berkeley and a full professorship, arriving at Berkeley in 1958 and achieving the chair by 1962. The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and the position of Benjamin Franklyn Professor of Sociology and Anthropology followed in 1968. The journey however was rarely smooth, as his unorthodox observational ethnography often courted controversy. Nonetheless, despite his seeming non-conformity his eventual nomination to, and acceptance of, the presidency of the American Sociological Association shortly before his untimely death from stomach cancer in 1982 is a mark of the position of esteem that he eventually achieved among his colleagues and peers. 161 Thought on Dialogue Goffman’s work, unlike that of other thinkers in this volume, is not directly inspired by ‘dialogue’ as a mode of communication which many assert seeks mutual understanding as its rationale.9 Nevertheless, he offers the theory and practice of dialogue a number of valuable insights, notably in his study of human interaction. This is premised on face-to-face encounter/engagement, which he examines across a range of social settings: in public and private, in one-to-one and group interaction and in its relationship to what he describes as the ‘Interaction Order’.10 Goffman was not unaware of the consequences of his work for the study of dialogue. But the language he uses, as well as the seemingly infinite detailed description and analysis of how interaction takes place, is in many respects of his own making. Graumann11 acknowledges Goffman’s commitment throughout his work to ‘social interaction and interdependence’ and agrees that to consider his contribution to dialogue one must ‘concentrate on Goffman’s interpersonal rituals, which he [Goffman] described as having a “dialogistic character”.’ Much of Goffman’s work explains the nature of social life and interaction using three metaphors: drama, ritual and game. The game metaphor is often seen as addressing the human capacity for manipulation and one-upmanship, while the ritual metaphor explores the maintenance of morality and social order. The different positions individuals take in interaction with each other, Goffman sees as being imposed as much by the situational activity one finds oneself embracing, as that of the individual’s own attributes of personality, emotion or cognition. Out of these situations individual or group roles are offered or expected, and the ritual aspects for those involved in interaction are used to maintain the social order, of which dialogue is a part. The drama metaphor applies to both morality and manipulation and depends on whether one sees Goffman’s conception of social life as moral or manipulative.12 I would like to suggest, as does Branaman, that morality for Goffman ‘is affirmed in the everyday-life interaction rituals’ (something we will explore later in the chapter). Goffman’s description of social life identifies the interplay between manipulation of information and risks associated with loss of face or gaining face and the morality informed by respect for the social order, which sustains the status quo. It is in his model of theatrical performance (or dramaturgy) that Goffman examines how he believes individuals attempt to control the impressions others receive of them. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (a seminal text) concerns itself with the dualistic self of much of his early work. This is a self who is socially constructed and yet is described as the ‘self-as-performer’ on the one hand and the ‘self-as-character’ on the other. The former involves the attributes of mind, emotions and impulses that experience pride and shame and motivates him/her to perform for others and to safeguard against embarrassment. But it is the ‘self-as-character’, out of which the socialised self, as Goffman sees it, emerges.13 As dialogue in normative form seeks authenticity of self and/or spirit in its desire for mutuality, there is for Goffman a continuity of life outside the role performed. Whether real or contrived, the performance and the person are equally socially defined (including the continuous self as 9 Paul Weller, preface to Dialogue Theories, by Frances Sleap and Omer Sener, ed. Paul Weller (London: Dialogue Society, 2013). 10 Goffman, ‘The Interaction Order,’ 1-17. 11 Carl F. Graumann, ‘Commonality, Mutuality, Reciprocity: a conceptual introduction,’ in Mutualities in Dialogue (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 14. 12 Ann Branaman, ‘Goffman’s Social Theory,’ in The Goffman Reader, ed. Charles Lemert and Ann Branaman, (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 1997), xlv – lxxxii. 13 Branaman, ‘Goffman’s Social Theory,’ xlviii. 162 character). Those impressions we convey and the techniques adopted to deploy them are part of the scenes that are presented. Goffman describes such scenes as acted out in ‘front regions’ or ‘back region’, the former essentially a public performance with one or more persons ‘who cooperate to present to an audience a given definition of the situation,’ the latter more in keeping with the privacy of back-stage where, ‘the performance of a routine is prepared’14 or a closed environment where only personal relationships, for example in the home, are contemplated. Dramaturgy addresses what Goffman describes as ‘dramaturgical principles’, which include: ‘performances, teams, regions, discrepant roles, communication out of character and impression management.’15 These terms reflect what Goffman sees as a range of characteristics associated with individual and collective performances in front or back regions, including the presentation of inconsistent or differing roles outside of others’ expectations, which he links to language expressed as ‘out of character’ for a given individual.
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